August 27, 2010
Manila Standard Today
PHILIPPINE Airlines said Thursday at least 558 travelers to the country had canceled flights from Hong Kong, Beijing, Xiamen and other points in China as of Wednesday following the death of eight Hong Kong tourists in Manila in a hostage-taking incident Monday.
The company would now “evaluate the possibility of reducing flights” to those destinations as a result, president Jaime Bautista said.
Immigration officials at the international airport in Manila said very few Hong Kong residents had been arriving since Monday’s incident, when a dismissed policeman opened fire on the Hong Kong tourists he had taken hostage on a tourist bus, and was himself killed by police in a botched rescue attempt. The Hong Kong government banned travel to the Philippines by its residents as a result.
A tour coordinator at the same airport said several groups of Chinese tourists had canceled their flights to Manila, Kalibo and Cebu.
“In the last two days, 90 groups or 558 passengers canceled their planned trips to Manila and Kalibo from Hong Kong and mainland China,” Bautista told reporters.
He said PAL had yet to experience the real impact of a Hong Kong government advisory warning its residents to stop all travel to the Philippines. The worst-case scenario would happen if the carrier was forced to reduce its flights between the Philippines and points in China.
“But at this point it is not yet necessary,” Bautista said.
“Hong Kong and China are very important routes for PAL.”
Philippine Airlines operates 10 daily flights to and from Hong Kong and 46 weekly flights to and from Xianmen, Shanghai, Beijing and Macau. It says it carries 40 percent of the annual tourist arrivals from Hong Kong, which totaled 123,000 last year.
“As of now, our load factors in Hong Kong and China are still okay, both at the high 70s,” Bautista said.
Cebu Pacific said there had been around 50 Hong Kong-Manila flight cancellations as of Thursday, or 2 percent of the total number of passengers for the airline’s Hong Kong routes.
“We are hoping it will not get worse,” vice president for marketing Candice Iyog said.
“As of now, we don’t see any need to reduce or cancel flights to Hong Kong.”
Meanwhile, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. said Thursday it was business as usual for its executives traveling between Manila and Hong Kong despite Monday’s incident.
“We are continuing our business-as-usual policy,” said Tony Cripps, chief executive of HSBC Philippines.
“But obviously, we cannot comment on what the [travel advisory that the Hong Kong] government issued. Jeremiah F. de Guzman, Eric Apolonio, Roderick T. dela Cruz
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